The present invention relates to a bumper structure in which an impact can be absorbed even at a lower portion of a bumper.
In recent years, there have been proposed front bumpers for vehicle bodies in each of which protection of a pedestrian is taken into consideration. The front bumpers are formed in such a manner that an impact can be absorbed at a lower portion of the bumper as well as at an upper portion thereof.
In a bumper structure like this, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open-2000-6739, it is disclosed a technology in which a bracket is interposed between a bumper face and a cross member so that it fastens a lower portion of the bumper face to the cross member on a vehicle body. The bracket has a plurality of mounting surfaces to overlap a front surface of the cross member. The bracket has pairs of vertical surfaces extending forward from both sides of the respective mounting surfaces in a direction substantially normal to a transverse direction of the vehicle. The mounting surfaces and the vertical surfaces are formed integrally with the bracket. The cross member is mounted to the bracket at the mounting surface. According to this technology, the respective vertical surfaces function as impact absorbing members at the lower portion of the bumper face.
However, interposing the bracket between the bumper face and the cross member, as described above, causes an increase in the number of components and results in a complicated structure. Namely, in the bumper structure in which no impact absorbing function is provided at the lower portion of the bumper, it is a general practice to fasten the lower portion of the bumper face directly to the cross member. Therefore, as compared with the bumper structure without the impact absorbing function, the bumper structure with the impact absorbing function, which described above and provided at the lower portion of the bumper, has an increase in the number of components.
In contrast, it may be possible to form the impact absorbing member integrally with the lower portion of the bumper face and mount the lower portion of the bumper face directly to the cross member without using a bracket. However, it is difficult to form such an impact absorbing member integrally with the lower portion of the bumper face. Even if it were possible to form the impact absorbing member integrally with the lower portion of the bumper face, it would be difficult to tune the strength of the lower portion of the bumper in such a bumper structure.